The inhabitants of the interior of Tunis are, with very rare exceptions, the descendants of the conquering Arab race, which quickly mixed with the Berbers of the country. The Tunisian Arab is naturally dark complexioned, and is generally bronzed by exposure to the sun. He is muscular and robust, and presents a striking contrast to his Moorish co- religionists. The Arab is always brave, and generally active and energetic. M. Roustan knew nothing of the Arabs, or he would not have observed jocularly to M. Saint-Hilaire that “four French soldiers and a corporal could take Tunis.” African Arabs are as a rule given to hospitality, and never refuse a meal to a stranger. Twelve months ago travellers could pass unmolested from _douár_ to _douár_ (encampment to encampment) over the whole face of the country from Khamír-land to the Tripolitan frontier. The Arab Sheikh looks upon _diffa_, or the feeding of wayfarers, as a crowning virtue. Any European could always count on obtaining food and lodging, but an Englishman invariably commanded a welcome. The very name of England was a talisman to the hearts of these simple-hearted herdsmen. They loved to ask about our Queen and our soldiers, to inspect our breechloaders and revolvers, and to talk of their brethren under British rule in the Blad-el-Hind. All this is past and gone now. We advised the Bey to acquiesce in the punishment of the Khamírs by the French, and assured both him and his subjects that if he “co-operated” with the invaders the expedition would go no further. He acted on our advice, but the French never found the Khamírs, and in six months overran the whole country from Tabarka to Jerba. From the day the French troops appeared before the Kasr-es-Said palace, Englishmen were reckoned with ordinary Roumis and Giaours. The Arabs are good horsemen, and make the best of their wretched flint-lock guns. If they had possessed better arms, the siege of Sfax and the march to Kairwán would have been a very different matter. The inhabitants of the Tunisian Regency outside the walls of its towns are divided and subdivided into a large number of tribes and fractions of tribes. A list of these clans would only tire the reader, and the names of the most powerful of them will necessarily occur over and over again in the course of the narrative of the war. Each large tribe is ruled by its Caid, who has one or more subordinate Khalifas. The Khalifas in their turn are superior to the Sheikhs, who sometimes only control a small cluster of tents. All these officials are invested and appointed by the Bey, and they all pay an annual tribute in proportion to the extent of their different governments. The manipulation of these nominations has from time immemorial been a source of great abuses, but of late it has become almost intolerable. “A reform of the list of Caids” sounds pleasantly enough to the European ear. The dwellers in Tunisian tents know too well what it means and what it costs.